GOP Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell drew much
derision, snickers, and ridicule for falling flat in fulfilling his oft
repeated goal to make President Obama a one term president. Obama's smash
electoral vote and solid popular vote win made the GOP's aim seem more comical.
The fiscal cliff battle seemed to render it even more absurd. Obama was the big
winner. He preserved the Bush tax cuts for the middle and working class, got a
big portion of cuts scrapped for the highest income earners, took Social
Security, Medicare and Medicaid off the budget slice table, delayed debate on
proposed draconian GOP budget cuts that will slam the poor and needy, and
delayed the battle over the debt ceiling.
But that was just the opening gun of what the GOP
loudly claims will be a bitter, protracted and divisive fight to stymie
President Obama's second term presidency. The GOP is under even more intense pressure
from ultra conservatives that have screamed at those GOP Congresspersons for supposedly
giving to much away to Obama in the fiscal cliff debate and not taking the
hardest line stance they could against deals. GOP House leaders reeling from
the criticism say they won't even consider talking with Obama behind closed
doors in the future to try to iron out their differences. McConnell went
further and couched his war like challenge to Obama as a battle to save the
nation's future.
The GOP has
several formidable weapons to hammer Obama. One is its power to say no in
Congress. It has done that repeatedly in the Senate on one issue that has flown
under the public's radar scope. It has refused to confirm legions of Obama's
judicial appointees. He's had fewer of his judicial picks confirmed then any
first term president in the last quarter century. That includes even district
court nominees. In years past their confirmation has been routine. The GOP has given no hint that it will
reverse course and approve many of his picks in the future. Conservative judges
have already shown they can obstruct or torpedo Obama administration policies
with their anti-environmental, anti-gun control, and pro-corporate
rulings. GOP leaders also showed that
they will harass, harangue, and try and intimidate Obama on his cabinet picks.
The GOP's full throated assault on the possible
nomination of UN ambassador Susan Rice to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary
of State was a prime example of that. Rice's withdrawal from consideration
under pressure will only embolden the GOP to use the tactic to constantly send
the message that it has the political muscle to get some of its way on public
policy issues, and to keep the Obama administration off balance. It's next
target will be Chuck Hagel, Obama's expected Defense Secretary pick.
The GOP also can dither, delay and obstruct
implementation and funding of health care reforms, tax and budget proposals,
and regulatory reforms that still need bipartisan cooperation to pass. This is
crucial since Obama needs to strike deals and make compromises with the GOP to
get anything done in Congress. That necessity is even more compelling given the
coming, potentially rancorous battle over the debt ceiling, immigration reform,
spending cuts, and reforms of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A
prolonged war with the GOP that results in the White House getting little or
none of its legislative agenda through Congress runs the risk of souring public
opinion not just on the GOP but the White House. This has been the bane of other presidents
during their second term and has marred their legacy.
Then there's the power of money. Since many
well-heeled corporate bankrolled candidates went down to defeat in the
presidential election, some saw this as a grand rejection of the corporate,
banking and wealthy ultra conservative bankrollers ability to buy their way
into office with their handpicked conservative candidates. That is a wrong read. Money will continue to
be a potent weapon at the GOP's disposal. The astronomical cost of winning an
office virtually assures that. The difference will be that in future elections
the GOP will be more selective and prudent about the conservatives that its
campaign financiers bankroll.
The GOP's greatest weapon is the frozen political
divide in the country. Nearly fifty percent of the nation's voters not only did
not support Obama, but expressed total contempt for his policies and his
administration. The GOP banks that it can swivel this divisiveness into
sustained opposition to those policies, and that it can buy enough time with
that until the 2014 mid-term elections and further boost its numbers in the
House and especially the Senate.
The 2012 election defeat did not in any way sate the
GOP's thirst to regain its dominance in national politics and that includes its
ultimate goal of winning back the White House. If it can succeed in tarring
Obama as a failed president, then it cynically calculates that will make that
goal much easier to attain.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political
analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio
Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and
Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is the host of
the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network.